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Slower and more thoughful than Angry Birds; this will appeal to hardcore puzzle fans!

After playing through and thoroughly enjoying Rovio's Angry Birds Star Wars I was eager for something that would satisfy my cravings for a good old puzzle game. The problem was that I wasn't quite ready to play another Angry Birds game with the same old game engine. A compromise came in the form of Rovio's fantastic spin off Bad Piggies.

Bad Piggies is another physics based puzzle game, but this time told from the perspective of the evil pig armies that want to enjoy the angry birds eggs. The twist is that; rather than catapulting yourself into danger, you are now trying your best to avoid it.

Each level starts with a simple starting grid and a few basic supplies that you must use to build a vehicle that will; hopefully, roll itself straight to the finishing line. This will then reward your pig with a portion of a map that will; hopefully, lead them to the Angry Birds eggs! It is essential that your piggy fit in the vehicle; and later on you must accommodate his stolen eggs too, but otherwise your are free to use; or discard, any of the building supplies to hand. Deciding which items to use is the key to building a vehicle that will reach the finish line and accomplish your goal. Along the way you will be given two additional goals to accomplish on each level. These can range from finishing within a certain time limit; hitting key objects on a level; building a vehicle capable of getting the giant King Pig to the finish line, and many many other similar goals. The majority of these can not be attained on the same play through, so replays become essential in order to get the full three stars for each stage. This gives Bad Piggies a far more leisurely pace than Angry Birds and will make it more appealing to puzzle game enthusiast as a result.

The stages themselves are all themed to the type of vehicles required. Early stages require you to create a simple 2 wheeled vehicle; while later stages will add in balloons and aeroplane parts as you attempt to fly your way to victory. Other stages will feature fewer objects and you'll need to think way outside the box in order to reach your goal. Thankfully the physics engine within the game was far more consistent than Angry Birds and as a result figuring out a design was an intriguing process that never became frustratingly difficult.

In terms of overall presentation I find this game to be top notch. Like Angry Birds the story is told through a series of humerus static pictures. Inside the game this humour was retained through some fantastic sound effects and imaginative graphical touches. The piggies themselves have been created as very bold cartoon sprites that travel across a static 2D landscape with incredible fluidity. They have retained the same comical faces whenever they crash and burn, but this is now somehow funnier due to the fact that you weren't intending to harm them.

So overall I was very happy with the Bad Piggies experience. The slower more thoughtful game-play is unlikely to appeal to the casual Angry Birds fan, but; at the same time, it will appeal more to the straight up puzzle game fan that likes to figure things out. I myself have had a blast with it and highly recommend it to anyone looking for a puzzle game that's a little different. Once again available for £5 on the PC I'd say it is a bargain. Even more so than Angry Birds as the average PC gamer is likely to enjoy solving the fairly difficult puzzles far more than the Android crowd ever will.

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fun, addictive time waster

Bad Piggies is a spin off the hugely popular 'Angry Birds' series. The difference with this game is that rather than controlling the birds, you instead take control of the pigs.The aim of the game is to build vehicles for the pigs in order to get themselves pieces of map to find the bird's eggs.

Each level gives you a few select objects in order to create the vehicle. These can range from boxes and wheels, as well as fans, soda bottles and springs. There are a huge number of different ways in which you can build the vehicles, meaning that you will very often find yourself trying out several different shapes and styles before you even get close to completing the course.

The game retains the cute cartoony style of Angry Birds, and the sounds effects and music in the game fit perfectly.

Each level has 3 stars, but unlike Angry birds where it has to be done in one go, you can do 3 different runs and collect one star each time, and sometimes this is the only way. The stars range from completing the course, to completing the course inside the time limit, by collecting star boxes, or completing the course without breaking anything off your vehicle. This means that very often you will have to do one run to complete the course within the time limit, and then do another run to collect the star box, as it is impossible to do both in one go.

Bad Piggies, much like Angry Birds, is an incredibly fun and addictive game, and is a great way to waste a bit of time.